Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems

by William Wordsworth

Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems was published by both Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798, ushering in the Romantic Movement of English literature. We have listed the work under Wordsworth by function of his name as first-listed in publication credits. Both authors published many of these works individually, many of which we offer separately under the respective author (such as Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). Because of Lyrical Ballads' significance in literature, we thought it was important to provide the complete collection here. Excerpt of the editor's preface ("Advertisement"), we thought it was an amusing way to usher in this new era in literature:
"Readers of superior judgment may disapprove of the style in which many of these pieces are executed, it must be expected that many lines and phrases will not exactly suit their taste. It will perhaps appear to them, that wishing to avoid the prevalent fault of the day, the author has sometimes descended too low, and that many of his expressions are too familiar, and not of sufficient dignity. It is apprehended, that the more conversant the reader is with our elder writers, and with those in modern times who have been the most successful in painting manners and passions, the fewer complaints of this kind will he have to make."

Lyrical Ballads: Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner